Laguna Canyon Road is expected to reopen for northbound commuters this morning, barring new flooding from the latest storm. A five-mile stretch of Laguna Canyon Road, between the San Diego Freeway and El Toro Road, was opened from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, the California Highway Patrol reported. And provided that it does not rain this morning, one lane of Laguna Canyon Road will be opened to northbound commuters between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. the CHP and Laguna Beach Police said.

Another dreary day in paradise. If it rains today, as forecasters expect, it will be the seventh day in a row that the sunny Southland has been what it's not supposed to be. Gray, chilly and wet. Mountains have been smothered by clouds and beaches bikini-free. In the last two months the area has been pelted with 14 inches of rain, just half an inch short of the norm for the entire season, which runs from July 1 through June 30.

Storm Scene Tuesday's storm, which dropped more than an inch of rain around Orange County, brought this year's total up to about 60% of normal. With more rain on the way, county officials and growers are casting wary eyes skyward: Rainfall totals (24 hours up to 4:30 Tuesday) Anaheim: 1.37 Dana Point: 0.64 El Toro: 1.84 Long Beach: 1.27 Newport Beach: 1.10 San Juan Capistrano: 0.96 Santa Ana: 1.12 * Year-to-date, (recorded in Santa Ana) This season: 5.13 Last season: 16.37 Normal: 8.

While the storm that hit the Southland over the long weekend failed to deliver much in the way of rain, lagging swells it created offshore were expected to reach local beaches with some force this morning, forecasters said. "We're going to see a lot of 5- to 8-foot waves," said Sean Collins, a forecaster for Huntington Beach-based Surfline.com. Waves may reach 12 feet in some areas, including Huntington Beach, he said.

Ask your neighbor. Or your oldest aunt. They'll tell you: If you want to see a tornado, go to Kansas. Or maybe Ohio. Certainly, not Orange County. But as the more cynical will warn, the only thing that's predictable about weather is that it's unpredictable. Ask any of the dozens of Irvine residents who left their otherwise serene Orange Tree neighborhood Thursday morning. They returned to find a landscape reshaped by what must have seemed like a meteorological Rototiller. At 12:45 p.m.

A fierce tornado dipped into a neighborhood of townhouses and damaged about 50 homes Thursday, tearing shingles off roofs, smashing windows and garage doors, uprooting trees and knocking out power to thousands. No one was injured in the tornado, which touched the ground just east of Irvine Valley College at 12:45 p.m., officials said. But the freak twister caused damage to 45 to 50 townhouses as well as several mobile homes at a nearby trailer park, Irvine Police Lt. Vic Thies said.

November 12, 1997 | DAVID REYES and LORENZA MUNOZ, TIMES STAFF WRITERS

A storm that threatened to dump up to 2 inches of rain on Orange County instead veered toward Tijuana on Tuesday, but only after unleashing at least one towering funnel cloud on the Irvine Spectrum entertainment complex. The 400-foot mini tornado touched down about 12:45 p.m., lifting up chain-link fencing and heavy lumber and tossing them "like toothpicks" against parked cars near a Spectrum construction site at the junction of the Santa Ana and San Diego freeways.

For rain-weary Orange County residents, a stormy Valentine's Day today will not be the object of much affection. * Meteorologists for WeatherData, which provides forecasts for The Times, say most parts of the county can expect to see one-quarter to three-quarters of an inch of rainfall by noon today, with some areas seeing as much as an inch. Up to two inches of rain could fall in mountain areas, forecasters said.

Clara DeBoer believed she was in for another quiet, rainy day at the office Wednesday, with a cup of steaming coffee at her dispatch desk and a good novel to pass the time. But when she arrived at her job at West Coast Sand and Gravel, she found the phones ringing nonstop. "Man, oh man," said DeBoer, whose company delivers sandbags for several firms in Orange and Los Angeles counties, "it has been going crazy."

A steady rain pelted Orange County Sunday night, portending a full-fledged storm that could dump another one to two inches on the region, and reviving fears of more damage to Anaheim Hills homes devastated by last month's downpour. The National Weather Service issued an urban flood advisory Sunday night for coastal and valley areas from Orange to Santa Barbara counties, warning motorists to avoid flooded streets and intersections.

Police struggled for more than four hours Saturday to right a truck that dangled over the Garden Grove Freeway in Santa Ana after toppling on a connector ramp in wet weather, authorities said. California Highway Patrol officers feared the big rig would break in two and plunge onto motorists below. The vehicle was eventually hauled to safety using three heavy-duty tow trucks, a CHP dispatcher said. The truck, which belongs to a private company that transports U.S.

Yes, it's dry out. Drier than an average year. And you can't blame La Nina anymore--that ended last fall. But it's not that bad, not like last winter, when the rain was so slight the hills never seemed to turn green. So tough it out. Rub a little moisturizer on your wind-chapped hands and revel in the envy of all those Rose Bowl-bound Purdue fans in from Indiana--where it was 15 degrees Thursday. And be glad you're not from Calgary, Canada, where it was 4 degrees.

A storm that dropped nearly an inch of rain on some parts of Orange County on Wednesday has caused at least one expert to soften previous assessments of the area's "drought-like" season. "I wouldn't call it a drought, but a dry spell," said Stacey Johnstone, a meteorologist for WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times. "I think what you'll end up with is a season that's a little drier than normal, but definitely not a drought."

A weekend of storms brought much-needed rain to Southern California but none of the weather-related disasters, from mudslides to major car accidents, for which authorities had been bracing. Showers are expected to continue through at least Thursday. Commuters this morning can expect light showers. But forecasters say that a week of wet weather will not go very far toward bringing up the season's rain total, which, at a mere 3.

Saturday's rainstorm didn't pack the wallop predicted, but Southern California skiers and winter resorts, suffering through one of the warmest and driest seasons in years, rejoiced over the first significant snowfall to blanket local mountains. Several inches of fresh powder were reported in forest towns from Wrightwood to Big Bear, and more is expected in the days ahead as a series of Pacific storms rolls over the region. "We're in the game now.

The first storm of the new millennium passed through Orange County on Tuesday, filling flood-control channels with runoff and making wind chimes jingle but barely affecting the area's yearlong drought. "It didn't make much of a dent--sorry," said Amy Talmage, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times. "If I could have made the rain harder, I would have."

Hail buffeted Santa Ana on Monday as a storm slid across Southern California with a little more enthusiasm than expected, bringing surprise showers, thunder and lightning. Cpl. Cliff Seward of the Santa Ana Police Department said the late afternoon shower of hail, "about the size of rock salt," was "coming down pretty hard, but it didn't last very long." The storm, which brought only 0.

Sudden showers ambushed Orange County residents who were lured outside Sunday by the deceptive sunshine. Periodic light rains unleashed by the tail end of a Pacific storm dropped less than a third of an inch of precipitation in most cities. Ominous gray clouds alternated with bright sunshine, signaling what forecasters said is a likely respite--at least for a few days--from the storm pattern that pounded the county for nearly two weeks.

Rain again wreaked havoc on the softball schedule as teams try to complete the season before playoff pairings are determined this weekend. The El Modena-Foothill game, which will decide the Century League champion, was postponed for the second time. It will be played at 5 p.m. today at Foothill. Century League athletic directors decided Wednesday to give up on completing the season for the other teams, meaning no team will have played more than eight league games.

Wanted: Old, wet and smelly sandbags. Reason: El Nino may have left the region. While weather experts caution to keep umbrellas handy, city officials in Huntington Beach are asking people to drop off sandbags under the belief that El Nino has said farewell to Southern California. But in its wake, officials said $58 million in damage has been caused by the relentless weather phenomenon that in Orange County toppled expensive homes, chewed up concrete storm channels and caused at least two deaths.